Bitmap Help - A Simple Help Engine

(No, Seriously!)

by Tomas J. Nally

Steelweaver52@aol.com

Bitmap Help - as if we needed another help application!

Surprise!

All Liberty BASIC users--from experienced programmers to newbies--are capable of authoring nice-looking help applications with the tools that come with MSWindows...and Liberty BASIC.

Bitmap Help (which can be downloaded here) is a Liberty BASIC help delivery application written in only 117 lines of code, including comments and white space. In reality, Bitmap Help is not much different from a bitmap viewer. But it's so simple to use, and the results are so good, that it's worth a look!

The Bitmap Help Screen

The layout of the Bitmap Help screen is very simple, which I consider one of its finest assets. Look at the screen capture on the right. You will see that the interface has only four controls: a statictext control, a listbox, one button, and a graphicbox. Of those four controls, only the listbox and the button require action from the help user. In fact, while I'm on the subject, let me provide the User Manual for Bitmap Help:

To display help documents, click on the document titles in the listbox.

Whew! I'm glad that's over. (Now I need a nap!)

In Bitmap Help, the vehicle which provides the help information is...er...the bitmaps displayed within the LB graphicbox. It might seem like a primitive way to provide information, but it offers the help author at least three distinct advantages:

The help author can create the bitmap images with the Windows Accessory, Windows Paint.
Because the help docs are bitmaps, they are entirely free form. The help author is free to mix text and graphics in whatever arrangements she desires.
Liberty BASIC is well-equipped to load and display bitmaps with native LB commands. (No DLL calls required.)

To those above I can add this observation: the large size of bitmaps--compared to other graphics formats--does not seem to be the issue that it was several years ago. When the primary method of software distribution was 3.5" floppy disks, efficient use of storage space was important. Now, since hobbyist-authored software is often distributed in zipped archives over the internet, the larger size of bitmaps is less an issue.

How Bitmap Help Works

The programming that makes Bitmap Help work is simple. In the screen capture above right, notice the listbox on the left-hand side of the window. If you look in the source code at the array contents of the list items, it looks like this:

HelpTopics$(1)  = "Welcome to Bitmap Help!                          <Welcome2BMH.bmp>"
HelpTopics$(2)  = "What It Is                                       <WhatItIs.bmp>"
HelpTopics$(3)  = "When To Use Bitmap Help                          <When2Use.bmp>"
HelpTopics$(4)  = "When NOT To Use Bitmap Help                      <WhenNot2Use.bmp>"
HelpTopics$(5)  = "What You Need for Bitmap Help                    <WhatYouNeed.bmp>"
HelpTopics$(6)  = "How Bitmap Help Works                            <HowBMHworks.bmp>"
HelpTopics$(7)  = "BMH Step 1 of 4                                  <BMHStep1.bmp>"
HelpTopics$(8)  = "BMH Step 2 of 4                                  <BMHStep2.bmp>"
HelpTopics$(9)  = "BMH Step 3 of 4                                  <BMHStep3.bmp>"
HelpTopics$(10) = "BMH Step 4 of 4                                  <BMHStep4.bmp>"
HelpTopics$(11) = "How to Deploy Bitmap Help                        <DeployBMH.bmp>"
HelpTopics$(12) = "About Bitmap Help...                             <AboutBMH.bmp>"
HelpTopics$(13) = "Bitmap Help's License                            <BMHLicense.bmp>"

Note that each listbox item has two parts. The left-hand part consists of the text that the help user sees in the listbox. The right-hand part of the string item contains the name of the help bitmap enclosed within angle brackets. It is this help bitmap that is displayed when the user clicks on the item. Note also that the bitmap name is spaced too far to the right to appear in the listbox. When the help user clicks on an item in the listbox, the program parses that string to find the bitmap filename contained within the angle brackets. Then, it loads the bitmap and displays it in the graphicbox.

One must admit: it's pretty simple.

When NOT to Use Bitmap Help

Despite Bitmap Help's elegance, it would be wrong to suggest that Bitmap Help is a good technology for help delivery in all applications. In particular, if the help author has to create dozens of very long and detailed help articles, then Bitmap Help probably wouldn't be a good choice. Or, if hyperlinked help text is absolutely essential, then Bitmap Help will not meet the help author's requirements.

When to USE Bitmap Help

On the other hand, Bitmap Help might be a good choice if the following conditions apply:

The help author has no dedicated help-authoring application.
The help author needs 20 help screens or fewer.
Each help screen doesn't need to be complex.
The help author wants maximum freedom to mix text and graphics.

Downloading Bitmap Help

The Bitmap Help application and several bitmap files are located in the bmh.zip archive, and can be downloaded here. When you unpack the archive, make sure that you maintain the folder relationships. The Bitmap Help application wants to find all bitmaps in a bmps\ subfolder. (editor's note: the files are also contained in the zipped archive of this newsletter.)

Bitmap Help's License

Bitmap Help is released as open source. The author, Tom Nally, retains the copyright. Programmers are free to use Bitmap Help however they wish. Programmers are also free to modify Bitmap Help in any way. The author requires, however, that an attribution to the author remain in the source code of any application that uses all or part of the source code of Bitmap Help.